4 of Whatcom’s 7 most recent COVID deaths among vaccinated, as cases stay ‘extremely high’

More than half of Whatcom County’s seven COVID-related deaths reported last week were in fully vaccinated residents, according to the latest report from the Whatcom County Health Department.

Four fully vaccinated residents’ deaths between Jan. 23 and Jan. 29 were linked to COVID-19, according to the Whatcom County Health Department’s latest COVID-19 Data Report released Friday, Feb. 4. All four residents were in their 90s — one woman and three men — according to the report. The other three deaths between Jan. 23- 29 were in unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents — two men in their 70s and one man in his 80s — the report stated.

The Bellingham Herald’s analysis of the county’s data also showed the infection rate among unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Whatcom residents dropped by nearly a third the week of Jan. 23 to Jan. 29. The county reported there were 1,364 new COVID-19 cases in Whatcom County among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated residents, which represents 59% of the county’s 2,305 new cases that week.

New COVID-19 cases were down by nearly a third last week, as 2,339 total cases (confirmed and probable combined) were reported the week of Jan. 30 through Feb. 5. That was down from the pandemic high 3,398 reported the week before. “COVID-19 cases are still at an extremely high level,” the Whatcom County Health Department said in a Facebook post Friday evening.

“While signs of a downward trend continued this week, the number of new cases right now is still about 3.5 times higher than they were during the Delta surge, and our hospital and health care system are still under strain.”